So no problem there, then

Smiles all round in New Zealand...

Big smiles in the photo that heads today's (tomorrow's) news report by John Gibbs in the Otago Daily Times, under the headline 'Minister reassuring on special needs'.

'Equity'

Read the following extract right through, to is bitter end.

Parents and teachers have nothing to fear from a planned review of special education, and it is not a cost-cutting exercise, Associate Education Minister Heather Roy says.

Mrs Roy, who has ministerial responsibility for children with special needs, visited several Dunedin schools yesterday.

Overall funding for special needs education was increased in the Budget, with $51 million extra being provided for the Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Scheme (ORRS) between this month and mid-2012, Mrs Roy noted recently.

The Government provided about $450 million a year for special needs education and the review would consider whether the money was being well spent and "to make sure that the children who need the funding are able to access it", she said in an interview.

Asked about criticism of some recently announced changes in special needs education, she said some funding for conductive education programmes was being ended this year, on equity grounds.

Nevertheless, overall national funding for special needs education had been increased, she said.

So that's all right then.

Reference

Gibbs, J. (2009) Minister reassuring over special needs, Otago Daily Times, 21 July

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/66158/minister-reassuring-special-needs